As part of dental hygiene, a patient's teeth are polished by a dental professional during a cleaning visit. Cups are used by dental professionals to carry a polishing paste. The polishing is accomplished by applying a prophylactic polishing paste to the teeth using a small rubber cup, commonly called a prophylaxis or prophy cup. The prophy cup is filled or loaded with a prophylactic polishing paste and the filled cup is held against the surface of a tooth while the cup is mechanically rotated. The force of rotation forces the polishing paste to traverse across the surface of the tooth abrading and polishing it.
The cup is attached to a dental angle, called a prophylaxis or prophy angle. The rotating action is provided by a rotating dental handpiece attached to the prophy angle.
Most dental handpieces utilized with prophy angles are air-driven devices that rely on the compressed air supply found in most dental offices. These handpieces are relatively simple mechanical turbine devices and are convenient in that they are typically reusable and sterilizable by methods such as autoclaving, whereas most electrical devices are less conducive to sterilization due to the high temperatures, high pressures and wet conditions of sterilization. However, these air-driven handpieces must remain tethered by an air line in order to operate. A dental professional may often have to move around the patient and change the position of the dental handpiece in order to reach all of the patient's teeth. This may be troublesome because of the air supply line.